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On Feb. 20, the FBI and federal prosecutors charged Bennett, 41, with second-degree murder. They allege that, on May 15, he killed his bride of three months and the mother of their child in international waters south of Key West, then deliberately sank his catamaran and staged it as an accident.

In federal court in Miami on Feb. 26, Bennett said he is broke and no one wants to take his case. He was assigned a federal public defender.

A U.S. magistrate earlier had set no bond for Bennett, citing the seriousness of the charges and the risk that the dual England-Australia national will flee the United States.

On Friday, after Bennett formally pleaded not guilty, U.S. District Judge Chris McAliley questioned the "danger" part but did agree Bennett is a flight risk.

She told Bennett that, if he was motivated to flee, "you'd be capable of doing that."

And she said of the evidence that, "while it is circumstantial, it is considerable."

Lewis Bennett's upside-down catamaran, Surf into Summer, as photographed by the U.S. Coast Guard in May 2017.

When federal public defenders said Bennett had no previous criminal record, McAliley reminded them that it was just before he was to be sentenced Feb. 20 on a conviction for knowingly transporting stolen coins that he learned of the murder charge.

And she noted that the complaint described Bennett as "quite calculating" and "very resourceful."